Last year, a News Morality Committee was established in an effort to rectify the morals of media employees whose “souls” have apparently departed. The editorial said that in Zhejiang Province, a “negative list” of news-industry morals was recently circulated to strengthen external supervision of newspapers, and the government in Hebei Province recently invited “societal supervisors” to reduce the number of reports related to “celebrities,” things that don’t seem right — and sex.

[…] The committee, which falls under the Communist Party’s central propaganda department, has already spread its scope to 16 provinces and has been tasked with strengthening the news ranks and resolving problems arising from news coverage, as well as fostering the “healthy” development of the news industry. [Source]

News organizations at all levels were urged to shut down local offices that fail to meet standards and dismiss unlawfully recruited employees, said a Wednesday statement by the publicity department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and the State Internet Information Office.

“Some news groups have too many local offices and employ personnel through unofficial channels, resulting in frequent illegal acts that severely undermine the spirit of journalism, harm the authority and credibility of news and lead to grave social consequences,” the meeting was told. [Source]

The commission [Central Commission for Discipline Inspection] typically releases statements that broadly outline problems it has uncovered, but details emerge only later if cases against prominent officials are pursued. The Zhejiang statement, like those for other provinces, focused on issues of corruption and abuse of power. The mention of religion was brief and made no specific reference to a recent campaign against churches in the Zhejiang city of Wenzhou, which has a large number of Christians as well as Buddhists and Taoists.

“In terms of implementing political discipline, in some places a minority of party members participate in religious activities and believe in religion,” the statement said. It added that individual cadres’ participation in “mass incidents,” meaning large-scale conflicts or protests, had a “vile influence.”

Such warnings about religion have usually been made about Xinjiang and Tibet, two border regions with large ethnic minority populations where the national government faces sometimes-violent resistance to its control. [Source]

At least 150 crosses had been removed by early July, and many churches and local shrines have been pulled down by the provincial authorities, said Philip Wickeri, the adviser to the Anglican archbishop of Hong Kong for theological and historical studies. The provincial Communist Party secretary overseeing the policy, Xia Baolong, is an ally of President Xi Jinping, but there has not been any sign yet of similar campaigns in other provinces, Mr. Wickeri said.

The provincial authorities have said that they are only trying to remove structures that do not comply with local land use regulations, and they have denied that they are engaged in a campaign against religious institutions. But Mr. Wickeri dismissed this explanation, saying that the organized removal of crosses and demolition of places of worship, including in cases where church leaders had previously received local and provincial authorities’ consent, could only be seen in a religious context.

[…] There has been no clear signal yet of whether what is happening in Zhejiang is a provincial-level experiment that might later lead to broader implementation elsewhere, Mr. Wickeri said.

[…] The total number of Christians in China is approaching the number of Communist Party members, of whom there were nearly 87 million by the end of last year, according to the most recent official figures. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/09/national-goals-still-murky-zhejiang-church-razings/feed/0Pastor Detained Amid China’s Anti-Church Campaignhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/08/pastor-detained-amid-chinas-anti-church-campaign/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/08/pastor-detained-amid-chinas-anti-church-campaign/#commentsWed, 27 Aug 2014 00:40:27 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=176620The Telegraph reports on the detention of a Christian pastor who has been vocal in his opposition to church demolitions in Wenzhou, Zhejiang:

A Chinese preacher is facing up to a decade in prison after he was detained on what supporters say are trumped up charges intended to weaken resistance to an ongoing crackdown targeting the country’s rapidly growing Christian community.

Huang Yizi, a Christian pastor from Zhejiang province in eastern China, was taken from his home in the city of Wenzhou by plainclothes police officers on August 2, according to activists.

The 40-year-old, who has been openly critical of an ongoing anti-church demolition campaign, is accused of “gathering to assault a state organ”, a charge lawyers say is often used to silence government critic.

[…] Pastor Huang’s detention is thought to relate to alleged attempts to organise protests against the removal of Salvation Church’s cross, which eventually happened on August 14.

Friends and congregants say Pastor Huang, a father of two who became a preacher at the age of 28, had come under increasing pressure because of his public opposition to the anti-church campaign. […] [Source]

The case began last November, according to the lawyer’s account, when a dispute over land and a dilapidated church led residents of Nanle County, in northern Henan, to travel to Beijing to petition the authorities.

The petitioners were forcibly brought back by the Nanle authorities — a common practice of local officials, who frequently kidnap petitioners, fearing that their complaints would draw negative attention from superiors — and taken to the Nanle County Disciplinary Education Center. A woman in the group suffered heart problems en route back to Nanle and was not given adequate medical attention.

Zhang Shaojie tried to help and was himself arrested in mid-November, the lawyer wrote in his post.

Regarding the charge of fraud, Zhang Xinyun wrote that an alleged financial dispute with two Nanle residents over Zhang Shaojie’s role in securing compensation for the death of their son was in fact over a contract, and that Mr. Zhang had secured a higher amount than expected on behalf of the couple. In return, Mr. Zhang received half of the extra amount, as stipulated in the contract. That did not constitute a crime of fraud, the lawyer wrote.

As for the other charge, “gathering a crowd to disturb public order,” there was “no legal evidence” that the pastor’s services as a mediator between angry citizens and local branches of Agricultural Bank of China, the Nanle Health Department and the China Life Insurance Company could qualify as such a crime, Mr. Zhang wrote. [Source]

Interest in Christianity has surged across China in recent years. Official statistics suggest there are 23 million practitioners, while other surveys suggest there may be three times as many. But as that interest grows, authorities appear to be increasing their efforts to limit their religious activities.

Some of the strategies to limit Christians’ ability to practice their faith have been presented as land disputes, including the May 2014 razing of a massive church in Zhejiang province. But as reported by the New York Times, that demolition was the direct result of a provincial policy decision to limit Christians’ “excessive religious sites” and “overly popular” activities. Severe restrictions on the freedom of religion are already well-known to Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims.

The Chinese government has multiple objections to religious freedom: authorities dislike organizations outside the immediate control of the party-state, and dislike individuals’ adherence to alternative beliefs. And these play out in an environment in which the government has moved to limit the already narrow space for the freedom of expression, the rule of law, the ability of independent organizations to operate, and the right to a fair trial. [Source]

I want to express deep concern by the United States by reports that Zhang Shaojie, pastor of the government-sanctioned Nanle County Christian Church, was convicted July 4th and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in retaliation for his peaceful advocacy on behalf of his church community. We call on Chinese authorities to release Pastor Zhang and we urge China to cease harassment of his family members and congregants. We call on the Chinese authorities to allow citizens to worship freely in accordance with China’s own laws and its international human rights commitments. Freedom of religion is a critical – is critical to a peaceful, inclusive, stable, and thriving society. [Source]

The nine-page provincial policy statement says the government aims to regulate “excessive religious sites” and “overly popular” religious activities, but it specifies only one religion, Christianity, and one symbol, crosses.

“The priority is to remove crosses at religious activity sites on both sides of expressways, national highways and provincial highways,” the document says. “Over time and in batches, bring down the crosses from the rooftops to the facade of the buildings.”

[…] Officials argued that the [Sanjiang] church violated zoning rules, but the provincial policy paper suggests that argument was a tactical cover. The paper, called “Working Document Concerning the Realization of Handling of Illegal Religious Buildings,” said the policy would face international scrutiny so officials should be careful to cloak their effort under the guise of cracking down on building codes. “Be particular about tactics, be careful about methods,” it said, urging officials to focus on the idea of “illegal construction.” “This is crucial to investigate and prosecute from the perspective of laws and regulations to avoid inviting heavy criticism.”

[…] The provincial government announced this month that it had arrested two Wenzhou officials and was investigating another three in connection with the church. The accusations against them appear to be that they approved the church’s prominent location and size. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/05/church-state-clash-china-coalesces-around-toppled-spire/feed/0Minitrue: Yue Yuen Strike, Cao Shunli, Morehttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/04/minitrue-yue-yuen-strike-cao-shunli/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/04/minitrue-yue-yuen-strike-cao-shunli/#commentsFri, 25 Apr 2014 04:06:10 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=171878The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.

CDT collects directives from a variety of sources and checks them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/04/minitrue-yue-yuen-strike-cao-shunli/feed/0Minitrue: Mistresses, Housing, and Handshakeshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/04/minitrue-mistresses-housing-handshakes/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/04/minitrue-mistresses-housing-handshakes/#commentsSun, 20 Apr 2014 01:49:29 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=171658The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.

CDT collects directives from a variety of sources and checks them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/04/minitrue-mistresses-housing-handshakes/feed/0“Shark Slaughterhouse” Exposed in Zhejianghttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/01/shark-slaughterhouse-exposed-zhejiang/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/01/shark-slaughterhouse-exposed-zhejiang/#commentsTue, 28 Jan 2014 19:50:32 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=168264After a four-year investigation, Hong Kong-based conservation group WildLifeRisk has exposed what could be the world’s largest whale shark “slaughterhouse” outside of the coastal city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. According to the NGO, the China Wenzhou Yueqing Marine Organisms Health Protection Foods Co Ltd processes up to 600 of the threatened species each year along with other vulnerable shark types. AFP reports:

Hong Kong-based conservation group WildLifeRisk said it discovered the factory in the town of Pu Qi in Zhejiang province after a four-year investigation.

It said the sharks are slaughtered and processed mostly to produce shark oil for health supplements.

Undercover video footage produced by the group showed workers cutting up the large dotted back fins of whale sharks and other shark species.

[…] The slaughterhouse also handles other species of sharks including blue sharks and basking sharks and produces 200 tonnes of shark oil annually from the three species, its owner — identified only as Li — said in the video. [Source]

In a joint-statement released today, Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton of WildLifeRisk said: “We went to Pu Qi three times in the last three years, and on each occasion the scale of the slaughter was truly staggering. “How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief. It’s even more incredible that this carnage is all for the sake of non-essential lifestyle props such as lipsticks, face creams, health supplements and shark fin soup. We are calling on China’s regulatory authorities to enforce the international agreements on this illegal activity now, before these animals are brought closer to extinction.” According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which China is a signatory, the international sale of products from an endangered species is illegal and the trade is unsustainable. [Source]

A whale shark brought in anywhere along the Chinese coast, from Shandong province in the north to Guangdong in the south, could be transported to Puqi by truck within three days, said Hoffard.

“If you go in summer, there are fields and fields of fins being laid out to dry,” he said.

Hoffard said he saw about five to six shark processing factories on his two trips to the township, which has an area of 13 square kilometres and had a population of 38,462 as of 2004, and had heard of others in Xiamen, Fujian province. [Source]

May Mei is the China program manager of WildAid, a nongovernmental organization based in the United States and China, whose public representative is the former basketball star Yao Ming and which campaigns to stop people eating shark fin soup. She called the report “pretty shocking” and “convincing.”

“Their photographs, the detail, the amount of time they spent doing it, the specific names they have, it seems very concrete,” said Ms. Mei.

“Domestic Chinese media are pretty shocked, too,” she said, but added that in terms of overall shark processing, China was not thought to be the biggest location any longer; Indonesia was. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/01/shark-slaughterhouse-exposed-zhejiang/feed/0Daddy Xi’s Book, Now in 2nd Printinghttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/01/daddy-xis-book-now-2nd-printing/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/01/daddy-xis-book-now-2nd-printing/#commentsTue, 07 Jan 2014 00:15:11 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=167354Xi Jinping is cultivating his public persona with more than just humble lunches. Weibo user @Coley测试版 found his writing on display at a bookstore:

Daddy Xi’s Zhijiang Xinyu has been reprinted. The way this bookstore arranges its shelves–my buddies and I are dumbstruck.

While he was Party secretary of Zhejiang, Xi Jinping wrote a column for the Zhejiang Daily called “New Words of Zhijiang” (“Zhijiang Xinyu” 之江新语). The book of the same name was first published in 2007.

The journal Ideological and Political Work Studies (思想政治工作研究) says Xi’s essays have “strong ideological content, focus, and relevance to the present time” (这些短论思想性、针对性、时效性强). Judging by the book on display to the left of Xi’s, the booksellers could not agree more.

On the surface, the knife-wielding murderer is to blame. Many have been found to have histories of personal problems and paranoia.

But there are deeper reasons. Amid economic growth and technological advances made in recent years, some in society have high expectations for the medical services they deserve. In their view, a doctor should be able to cure a disease after a trip to the hospital.

What they do not understand is that medicine is still an extremely complex field. Many treatments involve risks, and failures are not necessarily the doctor’s fault. As one veteran doctor said: “Too many promises have been made regarding modern medical treatment of diseases.”

Sometimes doctors cannot live up to those expectations. To go one step further, the public’s lack of understanding regarding how the medical field operates has created a mistrust of medical professionals. [Source]

In a circular released on Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security said police departments should step up their examination and guidance of efforts made by hospitals to ensure workers’ safety and to curb assaults on employees.

“No matter for what reason, or with what approach, organizations or individuals are banned from disturbing order in hospitals, harming the safety of medical workers, damaging hospital property or infringing on the rights of patients,” the ministry said.

[…] The ministry said it will support efforts by several other agencies to resolve disputes and strengthen patrols at hospitals.

[…] The ministry and the National Health and Family Planning Commission released a guideline last week on hospital security, which requires a hospital with 3,500 workers or 2,000 beds to have at least 100 security guards. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/10/patients-china-kill-doctors/feed/0River Crabbed: Protests and Confessionshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/10/river-crabbed-doctors-protest/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/10/river-crabbed-doctors-protest/#commentsWed, 30 Oct 2013 03:18:28 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=164703FreeWeibogathers Weibo posts (weibo) that have been censored from Weibo itself. Among those weibo collected on October 28 are comments on the protest at Zhejiang’s No. 1 People’s Hospital, as well as on CCTV confessions by Big Vs like Charles Xue and journalist Chen Yongzhou:

来自天使之城: #mourning&commemoration In this Celestial Empire, anything can be branded as stability maintenance: forced demolition is stability maintenance; chengguan beating a street peddler is stability maintenance; even occasions for disaster relief like Yuyao‘s typhoon-force rain become opportunities for suppression. At Wenling Hospital, an innocent doctor has been killed, yet they are not ensuring the safety of the hospital or quality of the medical environment, and they are not punishing the perpetrator. Rather, they come to grab the body, prevent mourning, “stabilize” the family members–Where is the justice in this? | Related News: “A Life Changed by a Medical Procedure”

米思特蔡: The funeral procession for Doctor Wang Yunjie, the late chairman of Wenling People’s Hospital, was originally scheduled to take place on October 28 at 9:30 a.m. However, the authorities are pressuring us to hold the funeral this afternoon (October 27), while a whole bunch of police wait outside the door. We are enraged!

南都评论: #SouthernMetropolisEveningBell When facing violence, this doctor was the victim; but in the face of this cold model of local stability maintenance, he was even more defenseless. When doctors, whose duty it is to save lives, are left without a sense of safety, when they are left without any dignity in the face of brutality and power, then calls to protect doctors will be limited to the doctor-patient relationship, and the real problem will be left unsolved. The tragic fate of this doctor reflects the plight of all Chinese citizens. In essence, this is a Chinese problem. | Related News: “Wenling, Zhejiang Hospital Medical Workers Band Together to Protect the Body of Slain Doctor”

隆裕太后: From Xue Manzi [Charles Xue] to Dong Liangjie and Chen Yongzhou, you’ve taken each of these yet-to-be-tried suspects and put them in front of a camera to confess their guilt. You’re in the wrong! You are wrong because this violates fundamental principles of the presumption of innocence, respect for the individual, and respect for the relevant laws and regulations of China. Perhaps these people’s crimes and confessions are true, and perhaps they are fake or forced. Anything is possible before a trial. That’s why we have presumption of innocence. That’s why suspects are innocent unless proven guilty. That’s why, CCTV, you’re wrong!

The No.1 People’s Hospital of Wenling saw more than 300 medical workers protesting at the square of the hospital at 8 am, a doctor surnamed Xie, who was one of the protesters, was quoted as saying by The Beijing News on Monday.

They held banners and posters saying that violence should be rejected and the safety of medical workers should be guaranteed, Xie said.

Hundreds of armed policemen flocked to the scene to prevent the crowd from turning violent, but Xie said it was a peaceful protest. [Source]

Industry watchers say an underfunded health-care system underlies systemic problems in hospitals, which have been in the spotlight in recent months, as authorities are cracking down on medical corruption and foreign pharmaceutical companies in particular. China’s health-care system also lacks a set system through which patients can take legal action when there are disputes or missteps in treatment.

Doctors say that a shortage in the profession has also meant that existing doctors have heavy patient loads, leaving them scarcely more than a few minutes to meet with each patient and undermining doctor-patient trust. There were 1.4 physicians per 1,000 Chinese citizens in 2010, compared with 2.4 per 1,000 that year in the U.S., according to World Bank data.

Deep dissatisfaction within the health sector is growing among doctors, according to surveys. In a 2011 Chinese Medical Doctor Association survey of 6,000 doctors, 95% said they were underpaid and 78% said they wouldn’t want their children to study medicine. [Source]

On October 8, administrators of the popular Wenzhou message board 703804.com discovered a post made by a user named “Luoju Luoshui”. The post entitled “If you want to save the Wenzhou economy, first kill Diyi Caijing Ribao reporter Chen Zhouxi” incited an uproar amongst forum readers.

Administrators deleted the post, but it re-appeared the next day, complete with a multiple choice voting poll, where the options were “kill”, “do not kill”, and “abstain from voting”.

“The changes in Wenzhou’s economy and the actions of this double-crossing finance reporter are connected,” a section of the post read. “All of the negative reports about Wenzhou were done by him … For the sake of Wenzhou’s economy, it’s necessary for Chen Zhouxi to become a victim of the system.”

[…] In statements released in a Diyi Caijing Ribao follow-up article after the incident, Chen speculated that the forum post had been motivated by a number of articles he had written about the regional economy of Zhejiang province – particularly the cooling housing market in Wenzhou city. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/10/death-threats-housing-market-reports/feed/0Ministry of Truth: “Mass Petitioning” After Floodhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/10/ministry-truth-mass-petitioning-flood/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/10/ministry-truth-mass-petitioning-flood/#commentsThu, 17 Oct 2013 15:04:14 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=164096“Mass petitioning” in Yuyao.]]>The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.

State Council Information Office: Do not report the Yuyao Daily story “Yuyao Flood Spurs Mass Petitioning; Minority Behave in Extreme Manner.” Websites that have already posted the article are asked to immediately remove it. (October 16, 2013)

国新办：对于《余姚日报》发出的“余姚洪灾引发群体性上访 少数人员行为过激”一文不要报道，已经发表的网站请立即撤下稿件。

Yuyao residents protested after crowds saw a TV journalist telling the camera that everything had returned to normal in the flooded southeastern city. Riot police were called in on Tuesday.

At present, our city has achieved a certain level of success in flood relief work, but the next stage of saving ourselves and returning to work remains onerous. Yet at this key point in flood relief, mass petitioning spurred by the flood has occurred, and a minority of people have behaved in an extreme manner. This reporter interviewed several city residents yesterday evening, who all expressed the need for people to treat this once-in-a-century natural disaster objectively and rationally, to put more energy into rebuilding, and to work with one heart and one mind to reestablish our happy home.

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.